Photo caption: Alumni and faculty in the College of Education & Human Development’s Developing STEM Professionals as Educators and Teacher Leaders (DSPETL) scholarship program pose for a photo with guest speaker Bettina Love during DSPETL's Culminating Ceremony on May 13 at the Auburn Avenue Research Library in downtown Atlanta.
story by Claire Miller │ photo by Dwaine Govan
When she was working on her undergraduate degree, Isela Rodriguez-Bussey (M.A.T. ’21) knew she wanted a career that would make a positive impact on students’ academic outcomes.
She’d initially considered starting a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting K-12 students, but she decided that becoming a classroom teacher would allow her to have the most direct, meaningful interactions with students and would give her the opportunity to be a dependable resource for them.
“I grew up in a predominantly immigrant, low-income community and I witnessed firsthand the educational challenges my peers and I faced – from limited resources to a lack of guidance on navigating the school system,” she said. “That experience planted a seed in me. I knew I wanted to be someone who could return to my community and help change that reality for future students.”
Rodriguez-Bussey looked for master’s programs that fit her career goals and came across the College of Education & Human Development’s Developing STEM Professionals as Educators and Teacher Leaders (DSPETL) scholarship program, a six-year, National Science Foundation-funded program aimed at recruiting, preparing and supporting STEM teachers.
In its first two years, the DSPETL program recruited 26 teaching fellows from Fulton County Schools and Rockdale County Public Schools who enrolled in either the college's Master of Arts in Teaching (M.A.T.) in Mathematics Education or its M.A.T. in Science Education. The fellows earned their master’s degrees in their first year with DSPETL and then received mentoring and professional development to support their work as teachers and leaders in their schools.
“The DSPETL program stood out to me as a space that could provide the mentorship, resources and guidance I needed to confidently enter the education sector and grow as both a teacher and a leader,” said Rodriguez-Bussey, who currently teaches physics and chemistry and serves as the science department chair at Tri-Cities High School in East Point, Ga.
Nicholas Collins (M.A.T. ’21), who serves as a program specialist for 6th-12th science in Fulton County Schools, initially applied for the DSPETL program to gain the credentials he needed to become a certified teacher in Georgia.
The program also gave him a network of colleagues and university faculty who have supported him in his educational journey and given him new ways to approach his work.
“The DSPETL program gave me professional learning, wonderful mentors who I could lean on and peers who’ve I’ve built this wonderful, lasting relationship with,” Collins said. “This program has transformed the way that I approach education, the way that I teach my students and the way that I support teachers.”
CEHD Retired Professor Christine Thomas, Associate Professor Natalie King, Associate Professor Christopher Jett and CEHD alum Andrea Dziengue (Ph.D. ’25) guided these 26 fellows as they took classes, learned how to teach virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic, returned to in-person teaching and took on leadership roles.
DSPETL officially ends in 2025 and to celebrate, the faculty team hosted a culminating ceremony on May 13 at the Auburn Avenue Research Library in downtown Atlanta. They formally recognized the program’s school district partners and the 26 fellows who completed the program.
King said she hopes that the DSPETL fellows think about how much they’ve grown while in the program and how they can inspire their students.
“I hope that our teacher leaders will continue to be courageous and bold. We know that they can do everything they put their mind to,” she said. “And I think that when their students see them going after their dreams, pursuing additional degrees, starting their own organizations and businesses – I think we’ve planted the seeds and shown what’s possible.”